More than 400 migrants are living aboard pleasure cruise vessels bobbing in the sea off Malta, many of them for weeks now. But for them, it’s no pleasure, only uncertainty over their fate and they aren’t cruising anywhere.

Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Paris on Tuesday after around 20,000 people defied a ban to rally over the 2016 death of a black man in police custody, galvanised by US demonstrations against racism and deadly police violence.

The German government has approved the lifting of travel warnings for 29 European countries, to take effect on 15 June, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday. The warnings - imposed worldwide in March due to the coronavirus outbreak - are set to be lifted for Germany's 26 fellow EU member states apart Spain where restrictions on visitors will extend beyond 15 June.

The most pressing task now for the EU lawmakers is to assess quickly the Commission's revised proposal for the next EU long-term budget and the recovery plan as a whole, and to vote on its position as soon as possible. On this occasion, on Tuesday, EP President David Sassoli met via videoconference with the Parliament's Contact Group on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) to discuss the upcoming talks on the new long-term budget.

The Commission has launched on 1 June a public consultation on the Digital Services Act - a landmark package announced by President von der Leyen in her political guidelines and in the Commission's Communication “Shaping Europe's Digital Future” of 19 February.

Slovenia has sent some 1,000 additional police to the border with Croatia to counter an expected surge in migration toward Western Europe with the easing of lockdown measures across Europe, authorities have said. Police at the border are equiped with surveillance drones, thermal cameras, motion detection cameras and helicopters, and will be assisted by the military and the specialised border control units and police dogs.

The Commission’s revised proposal for the next MFF substantially reinforces the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding to a total of €391bn is proposed for agriculture and rural development, adequate to the importance of agriculture and rural development in the EU. In the new draft, presented on 27 May, the executive added €26.4bn to its 2018 proposal.

The EU's chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, rejected last Tuesday the US President Donald Trump idea to re-invite Russia to this year's G7 gathering hosted by the US, insisting the conditions had not been met, news wires reported. “The G7 cannot become G8 until Russia changes its course. This is currently not the case,” Borrell told reporters in Brussels, stressing that “cooperation amid like minded partners is crucial more than ever”.

In its ambitious Recovery package, that will be discussed by the EU leaders on 19 June in Brussels, the Commission has proposed a budget of €118.2bn for external action, with an extra €15.5bn to support its partners in recovery efforts in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. Thus will be boosted EU’s role as a strong global actor.

The Commission updated on Tuesday the EU Air Safety List, which compiles the airlines that are subject to an operating ban or restrictions within the European Union as they do not meet international safety standards, the EU press service reported. The list is aimed at ensuring the highest level of air safety for all passengers travelling in the EU.

The EU set up on Friday a new special unit of investigators to tackle an anticipated surge in financial crime in the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, news wires reported. The European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) will work closely with Europol.

Trade commissioner Phil Hogan is considering putting his name forward as a candidate to be the next director-general of the World Trade Organisation, his spokesman said on Sunday cited by Reuters. The post will become vacant at the end of August after incumbent Roberto Azevedo said he would step down a year early.

The European Union and Britain are likely to have to engage in accelerated Brexit talks over the summer because no one expects a breakthrough at the next round of talks, an adviser to the EU’s chief trade negotiator Michel Barnier said on Friday.

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